No undo function on Android?

[bag-o-droid]

Welcome to our world. You should be more sensitive to us folk than barging in to awaken our buried miseries; pulling the scab off an unhealed Google wound.

 

[Shikher Pandey]

Android can do it, it is up to the application developers to implement it. There are a lot of apps with undo functionality.

 

[Robin Wenz]

Sometimes hilighting dies not bring up select all, cut, copy or clip board features. I too have faced the nightmare of typing a lot only to see it vanish!

 

[Robin Wenz]

I've given up on PC and Androis crappiness I am buying an apple computer and a new phone!

 

[Gin Tonic]

generally i dont see the undo function. As said it depends on the developer. What i use to do when im typing a long text on whatsapp or writing an email on my phone i use to top in to select everything and copy it, so if i loose the text i can recover it just doing a paste.

 

[twitbait]

I don't think so! The problem with the 'back button' in most apps actually saves the mistake you might have just made. If you have important text saved in an Android App (not most emails) and you accidentally delete it, you cannot get it back because the 'back button' saves it the way it is. I am super frustrated by this so I had to respond.

 

[BanditQuest]

I just found A.I.type keyboard
...
It has undo/redo as long-press keys among other useful features, such as cursor keys (available as extra page and as long-press keys).

Thank you for the tip. I just downloaded this and WOW it has a lot of customisation and I love the forward delete key, undo and cursor keys. There is a lot of stuff there in free version I don't really need but that's ok. The only thing that concerns me is this app is 102MB (77MB code + 25MB data) that is huge for a my phone on a tight memory diet. After fresh boot I am at 1.2GB used from max of 1.78GB RAM then I just added this app so I will see how I go.

"inputting+" app sounds interesting which was mentioned in this makeuseof article. It has undo, and find+replace. I might swap to that if "ai.type Free Emoji Keyboard" does not work out.

I am sure there must be other lighter keyboard apps that just have a forward delete key, undo and cursor keys - the problem is finding them! Over 60% of google apps never even get downloaded. If anyone finds one that has an undo key please mention it.

 

[newtonapple12]

I found an undo button, at least on the email app of my mom's Samsung android device! It is on the same 'bar' as other formatting buttons (bold, italics, etc). It looks like a curved arrow pointing to the left. The bar is hidden though, so you have to press another icon to get to it. I don't know if this applies to the forum participants but thought I'd post it just in case. I She accidentally something really important and was able to get it back by undoing her last steps.

 

[Gary Erdman]

What you saw was specific to that program. What was the email app name?

I just installed a great app called inputtings+. this program works on all programs (except browser's I guess) It adds the undo feature to your cell phone.

Gary.

 

[MJ Shelby]

My Samsung Note 5 stock email app has undo and redo options.
Thank God!

Did some search on the internet and it appears there is no 'undo' button or shortcut for android.

Am I terribly bad at using Google or is it really android has not got 'undo' function?

Thanks all!

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

[Rukbat]

Undo on a computer, normally Ctrl-Z, is code written by the developer. (There's a function for it, but the developer has to recognize that you typed Ctrl-Z and call the function. Unfortunately, unless you're running the Hacker's Keyboard, there's no Ctrl key, so the developer could use a long-press to bring the menu up, and have an Undo function choice, or any of dozens of other ways, since nothing's been written in stone yet. It takes time between the introduction of a technology [like smartphones] and the standardization of functions [like undo keystroke]. Even Notepad, in Windows, doesn't do it the standard way.)

 

[Alex Dkbrst]

Interesting thought. I've never seen or heard of anything like this, but that would be a feature I could have definitely used once or twice.

Oh god, I actually registered to leave this one comment:

This comment of yours just HAS to be the most useless thing ever posted on the internet.
Congratulations!

 

[BimmyBot]

Hi. I know its an old post, but I just went through this, again, myself. Android has had ctrl+Z functionality, since the G1. They just stopped making good phones, with real keyboards (yes, I'd take a phone twice as thick, with a physical keyboard, any day)

Some alternate keyboard apps have all the keys of a grown-up computer, like Hackers Keyboard, and you can get your ctrl and alt functions back. I just deleted all the text in an email, by accident, installed HK afterwards, hit ctrl (a toggle,) then hit Z, and all is well. HK had no knowledge of what i had typed. Nobody should ever need a 3rd party app saving everything you type.

Id love to hear from anyone who can't undo something with ctrl+Z, I'm almost certain it's been built into Android, since day one.

Bimmy

 

[KhaluciFerg]

attn:Robin
In the off chance that you happen to have devoted 2yrs to whatever doc you were creating when you posted regarding "select all," and you still care...
"SELECT ALL" only appears if you:
/TAP & HOLD at the VERY END or VERY START of BODY OF TEXT/

attn:HTHA-ers
It seems, all these years later, I find myself on an unwitting pilgrimage. Only now am I learning the roots of our people's "undo function" dilemma -- the Happen-To-Have-Android-er's struggle.
I just lost the first 90min (possibly ^90%) of my week's allotment devoted to creativity. That's MY F%#*-Around Time we're talking about.
And so... This morning... Due to the slightest of accidental grazes against my touch screen... Without plan, nor prior sympathy, nor synthesis of any Earthly origin... I know just a little deeper what it is that on the right day might easily land one inside a vest that can send him flying in nearly infinite directions to hell.

 

[Very Anonymous]

Omg, registered here just to reply to this discussion...

A few comments on this thread:

• LOL at users pretending that asking for an undo function is an unusual request...
• LOL at users trying to divert the discussion in a direction that will defend Android for not implementing a "good" undo function...
• LOL at users acting like they don't understand why we want and undo function...
• LOL at users pretending to be intensive users while being satisfied with no undo function...
• Have you been living under a rock for the past 20 years?
• Is your car pulled by horses?
• Have you ever used ANY other electronic device equipped with an OS other than your android phone?
• Why are you commenting on forums and pretending that you can help others if you can't even understand the importance of an undo function?

A few possible solutions that will implement an undo function, but......

• Native system undo / CTRL-Z function available in Android since Marshmallow

• But... you either need a physical keyboard with a CTRL key, a tablet (which have bigger keyboard already with a CTRL key), or to install a third-party keyboard with a CTRL key... Hacker's Keyboard seems to be a good option...
• But... I tried the CTRL-Z function with Hacker's Keyboard, and it did not look like it could go very far in the past... It undid the last 1 or 2 things I deleted, and then it stopped undoing... Other drawbacks to Hacker's Keyboard: doesn't have emojis and when you use the layout with CTRL button, the buttons are very small because there are more buttons on the screen...

• AI Type Keyboard has many features including undo/redo

• But... It costs something after the free trial expires... You can continue to use the free trial, but some features will be missing...
• But... AI Type Keyboard seemed to be packed with about 1 zillion features I will never used when the only thing I needed was undo/redo...
• But... AI Type Keyboard has ads and will try to have you download another of their software or emoji pack once in a while...

• Inputting+ app

• This app is a complement to your favorite keyboard. You continue using the same keyboard and it will add a few of the CTRL functions usually present on other systems (CTRL Z/F/C/V).
• But... When trying to enable it on my S7, it asked me to turn off my "secure startup" function because both could not be used at the same time... Secure startup is the function that will require a password when I power on my Android... Why should I turn this off to be able to use a CTRL-Z app... I uninstalled the app right away and did not try it... Don't know if this issue happens with other devices or only S7...

Conclusion

• LOL at Android implementing a semi-convincing system undo function ages after it has been the norm on all systems.
• LOL at Android pretending to be a secure OS when it requires us to install third-party applications that can collect everything we type to be able to use a function as basic as undo...

So... what I did for now is install Hacker's Keyboard, but keep using the keyboard I was using before and switch to Hacker's Keyboard only if I have to undo something... But still it has to be a "small" undo job because the system undo function for Android doesn't have a very good "memory"...

I may be trying AI Type Keyboard in the future, but I hate having to pay for a function as basic as undo... And the free version seems annoying...

Anyone who finds a better solution for undo in the future please keep resurrecting this post as it is a very hot topic for Android users who have actually been using ANY other system than Android for more than just checking Facebook in the past... And this discussion keeps popping in #1 in search results...